ABRACADABRA

Here labour pain is not an emergency
Mumbai: A woman in labour is not an emergency, believes the state government. This view was aired before the Bombay High Court while a division bench was hearing a PIL filed in 2009.
Aariya Khan, a 20-year-old destitute woman who sells trinkets on the western line, delivered a baby on the Bhayandar railway platform in January 2009. After the delivery, a constable present on the platform took her to the BMC-run Bhagwati Hospital in Borivali West.
Aariya had delivered an underweight baby and was discharged from Bhagwati Hospital within a week, as a result of which, it is claimed, her baby died. She has earlier lost two children.
The petition points out that no hospital or clinic is available near railway stations to deal with emergencies and that no ad hoc step was taken while the lady was in labour.
But Niranjan Pandit, Additional Government Pleader for the state government, had a different take on the issue. “A woman in labour is not an emergency. Pregnancies and deliveries are not emergencies because you know you are pregnant right from the time a child is conceived to the time the child is delivered…”
The petition further contended that the lady was made to leave Bhagwati Hospital within a week as she did not have address proof to support her contention that she belongs to the below poverty line (BPL) category, which would have enabled her to avail of the medical services.
AGP Pandit said, “How do we know she indeed belongs to BPL? She did not have an address proof to prove it.” The petition further contends that the mother and child should have received care and assistance under the National Health Mission, the Janani Suraksha Yojana and the Integrated Child Development schemes which guarantee food and nutrition for pregnant and lactating women pre and post delivery.
Advocate Gayatri Singh for the petitioner said, “No pre-natal or post-natal services were provided to the mother or the baby. Moreover, she should have been kept in the hospital for at least 14 days.”
The petition also highlights the need to have hospitals or clinics next to railway stations. No hospital is available in Bhayandar where almost 12 lakh people reside; therefore the victim had to be taken to a hospital in Borivali West.
The division bench comprising Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A S Gadkari has asked the woman to be present in court and summoned the said constable who took the lady to the hospital.
A woman dies in childbirth every eight minutes and India accounts for more than 17 percent of maternal deaths in the world every year.

Foot ball match & black magic
Mombasa (Kenya): A domestic football match in Mombasa was abandoned over the weekend after riots broke out following claims that spectators used black magic – juju – to decide the game’s outcome.
Alaskan FC were leading 1-0 over local rivals Napoli FC during the Mishi Mboko Tournament when a supporter of the former ran onto the pitch and broke a coconut as a charm to maintain the result, reports Xinhua.
Tournament coordinator Said Rajab confirmed that soon fighting broke out between the two teams and spectators, who pelted each other with missiles, forcing the abandonment of the match with 30 minutes of play left.
Following the melee, Alaskan FC was expelled from the tournament for bringing the game into disrepute.
Last year, in April, a referee sued Football Kenya Federation (FKF), claiming he had been rendered impotent after a coach grabbed and squeezed his testicles during a pitch invasion in the same city.

Watch football match & get arrested
London : A woman has been arrested in Saudi Arabia after she disguised herself as a man in order to watch a football match. The police said that the woman bought her ticket online and was able to bypass the security by wearing men’s clothing including, a baseball cap and a hoodie to cover her hair. Women are barred from watching football, volleyball matches in Saudi Arabia.

Elephant flees with tourists
Bangkok: A rampaging elephant killed his mahout and fled into the nearby forest carrying a Russian female tourist and her eight-year-old daughter on his back in central Thailand, media reports said. The incident happened at Puvara Tour elephant camp which offers elephant rides for visitors in Muang district. The 18-year-old male elephant, Phlai Meow, was on a forest tour with the Russian tourist and her daughter on its back. The animal was steered and guided by 60-year-old mahout Sook Submark, Bangkok Post reports. 

Dog in witness box
Maryland: A little dog Ozzy took the witness box along with his owner Sharon Betts in a Maryland courtroom to testify in an animal cruelty case involving Bett’s former boyfriend Khanh Hoang Hong. In April 2013, Hong broke into Betts’ home, grabbed Ozzy and his mate Pieper whose carcass was found four days later. Ozzy somehow managed to chew his way out of the bag and jumped to safety. With Ozzy on her lap, Betts pleaded with the judge to impose tough sentence.


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